Juicebox
by Apples Parachute
Summary: A jealous blacksmith wandering the town's beach trying to find himself. Not a songfic but When We Say AJ Rafael inspired. A directionless oneshot fluff.


On perfectly ordinary days, gramps would make me want to murder everyone within 1000 mile radius. After getting kicked out of the forge today for being out my _rabbit butt mind_ or so he called, I could've expected for something worse. But then, I was too disappointed and miserable to even register the old man's previous harsh remarks.

She's been flirting. And to make matters worse, she's been flirting with that purple-bandanna wearing idiot. I am so upset with the fact that he had gotten her through merely smooth-talking to her. I said she knew better to fall for it, but right after those words came out of my mouth, I saw her with him, all perky and dolled up, shadowing Kai like some obsessed fangirl.

I walked around town, not really feeling like going to the library. My mind was too jumbled up with thoughts to even comprehend my grandpa's instructions. I'd just be fooling myself if I even tried to pick up a book.

I need to be in a serene place where I could make sense out of things. I made a detour to the beach.

I took off my boots and jacket and sat down in the sand. Come to think of it, I never really gave this place a chance. My world seemed to only revolve around the forge, the inn, the library and at really rare times, Claire's farm.

I looked up at the sky. Summer had just ended, and it was so hard for me to bear seeing Claire so crestfallen at Kai's departure.

I almost thought we had it. Just before Kai came, Claire and I would talk the whole day off at the inn, laugh at the most random things, fight about the simplest things and make up afterwards, try to figure out the townspeople, think of the ways on how to solve the problems of the universe. She'd give me several ores at work just cause she knew I mess up quite a lot, and I had to have a lot of spares in stock. There were moments I would catch her stealing a glance at me, then she'd instantly turn away.

I thought those times meant at least something to her.. like how they did to me. But then, it seemed like I was wrong.. I always am.

I settled for being just a best friend. I said I guess I could live with that, being there with her almost every time, witnessing every little change in her individuality, watch her grow old, let the years unfold before us. The moment Kai came, I knew right there and then, I'd just be another one of those guys from the sidewalks observing the girl of his dreams beside some man, secretly aching.

_Think of happy thoughts, Gray… Nothing else but happy thoughts._

That's what she always tell me whenever I'm upset. But how can I think of anything happy in this state when all happy thoughts I think of consist of her? I groaned in frustration.

"What's poppin', mister blacksmith?" a singsong voice behind me said. I turned my head to look at the culprit of both misery and joy in my life.

Claire…

Claire tossed over a little purple box at me, smiling. _A juicebox?_

"Duke just gave me two free samples of the grape juice he's trying to make. He thought he had to reward me for making Cliff work for his winery," she said as she sat down beside me, peeling off the plastic that covered the straw. She turned to look at me carefully, sipping on some juice. She furrowed her eyebrows, a concerned look on her face, "Why so glum, chum?"

I turned my gaze from the sky to her, not seeing much difference in beauty. The sun was just about to set, splattering Claire's cheeks different shades of red. Her hair was a mess, bangs plastered on her forehead from all the sweat probably brought by all the farm work. She's beautiful. The sea gave off a really relaxing and melodic sound. And the cool drink on my hand just added to the soothing vibes. Being in this place beside the woman I love, nothing could make this more perfect.

I took a sip and found myself pleasantly surprised at the tastiness of the beverage.

"Have you ever been in a state of extreme sadness where everything just seemed to bring you down? That even the most random thing, like… like an image made by footsteps in the sand feel like it's mocking you?" I asked out of the blue. I watched her brows compress into confusion.

"Hmmm.. well there was this one time when my ex-boyfriend…"

"No, no," I cut her off. "I'm not talking about that kind of sadness, or the kind of sadness you feel when your dog died or the sadness you get when you're saying good bye to a special friend at the port." I noticed her mood just a while ago changed into a sadder one, matching mine. I just realized the irony of the last example was. I mentally punched myself at this.

"I'm talking about the state of when you feel like you've been living in a completely purposeless life. That you seldom see the beauty in it. And just when you thought you did, something… or _someone_ seems to step in to your life and take it," I paused, my hand crumpling the cardboard material of the now empty juicebox. "You just have the mindset of failing in everything. You want to do something about it, but then you don't know how since positive attitude doesn't seem to be an effective option."

She brought up her index finger to her bottom lip, looking like she's wracking the deepest portions of her brain to get an answer. "I… well, in that case, no. I haven't had that." She blew an ascending breath through her now dry bangs, making it briefly flutter from her forehead. She was lost in thoughts as much as I was. "Why do you ask? Have you experienced that? 'Cause if that is the reason why you're feeling awfully unhappy right now…"

I laughed a little, "Nope. It was just a random fleeting thought."

She eyed me skeptically for a while, long enough to make me feel a little uneasy. She turned and looked distantly at the sun that seemed to disappear more and more into the body of water in front of us. "What's the movie you think that has affected you greatly?"

I raised my eyebrows at the very randomly chosen question. I thought about it, finally choosing: "Dear John."

She smiled and nodded as if in approval. "What about a book that affected you?"

Where is this conversation going? I was getting a little annoyed at how she was forcing me to ponder on these things that I don't even think would be of any use to her. But I gave it to her anyway. "I dunno… I suppose that book that Mary made me read that I forgot the title. It was about a couple where one of them got cancer and died at the end," I finished off easily. "Why do you ask?" I tilted my head to look at her, but her gaze remained on the now purple sky.

"You see Gray, there's this thought I realized back when I was in the city."

"Yeah?"

"Did you notice that your answers both covered a tragic story? Both finished off in a sad ending?" She closed her eyes and pulled her head back, her hands supporting the weight of her upper body. "What I want to point out is, the things that leave so much effect on you are mostly the ones that hurt you or the ones that comprised a negative outcome. I bet you didn't even think of any good comedy movies that made you remarkably happy when I asked for a movie? Nope, of course you didn't. That's because negative things always have their ways to dent our emotions and behaviors, and affect us that much that they remain imprinted in us in some way, whereas happy thoughts and good vibes happen to stay with us pretty briefly." She looked at me and continued, "What you are focusing on right now is only the left side of the book. You let certain incidents in your life leave negative emotions that eventually form into distrust, cynicism and depression. You're one of the toughest guys I know, Gray. You shouldn't let some mere emotion act on and dictate your life."

How can someone so small, so light and just… so simply dainty contain so much sense in her? She's giving me one of those butterflies in the gut by just merely looking at her straight in the eyes. I love her. I tried to fight with all my might the urge to lean in, take those soft and tiny cheeks in my hands and kiss her.

But found myself to be failing.

I kissed her. She seemed to be so surprised at my action that her body grew stiff. I waited for a moment to see if she would make any objecting actions. She didn't. I took this as an invitation to continue. I'd been meaning to do this to her that I wasn't even nervous at all. It took a while for her to finally sink in what was happening that she finally moved. My chest had this painful pang when I thought she was trying to break the kiss, but then I realized she just tilted her head to the side to kiss me back.

I pulled her closer. She grabbed my head, pulled it against her as close as she possibly could, knocking my cap off. She played with my hair while we glazed our lips together. She was enjoying it just as much as I was. We stayed like that for a minute, five minutes, an hour, I didn't even know. All I knew was that I wanted to freeze this moment forever.

I gave her lips a last smack and broke the kiss. I replaced my gaze back at sky, grinning. Even without my peripheral view, I knew she was also smiling.

Silence.

I then laughed loudly, ruining the moment. "That was great, Claire. Who could've imagined you had that depth in you." I joked, thumping my knuckles on my forehead, gesturing. I was referring to the speech she gave me earlier, totally skipping the kiss.

I watched her expression change from confusion to that all too familiar irate look on her face when I joked around her, "I'm very surprised that it didn't make a hollow sound when you hit your head!"

My eyes widened at her comeback. I glared at her, and she willingly gave it back to me. And at the moment of recovery we both laughed at how impulsive our moods were.

I got three more seasons in my hands before Kai comes back. My hand inched to hers. And the moment she felt my touch, she positioned her hands so we could intertwine our fingers.

Three seasons… I know full well I'm going to make the best out of them.

A/N: Hurray for a cheesy fanfic! Hahaha, so sorry, I am not so happy about this one. It's 3 freaking AM and I cannot sleep, I just thought I had to do something. So please bear with me! Aaaand nope, Kai and Claire aren't dating in this. Thank you for reading! Please review!


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